Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa（Chinese:
覺音）was a 5th-century IndianTheravadinBuddhist commentator and
scholar.[1][2]
His name means "Voice of the Buddha" in the Pāli language. His best-known work is the Visuddhimagga, or
Path of Purification, a comprehensive summary and analysis of the
Theravada understanding of the Buddha's path to liberation. The
interpretations provided by Buddhaghosa have generally constituted
the orthodox understanding of Theravada scriptures since at least
the 12th century CE.[3] He is
generally recognized by both Western scholars and Theravadins as
the most important commentator of the Theravada.[4][2]

Contents

Biography

Limited reliable information is available about the life of
Buddhaghosa. Three primary sources of information exist: short
prologues and epilogues attached to Buddhaghosa's works; details of
his life recorded in the Mahavamsa, a Sri Lankan chronicle; and a
later biographical work called the Buddhaghosuppatti.[5] A few
other sources discuss the life of Buddhaghosa, but do not appear to
add any reliable material.[6]

The biographical excerpts attached to works attributed to
Buddhaghosa reveal relatively few details of his life, but were
presumably added at the time of his actual composition.[6][7] Largely
identical in form, these short excerpts describe Buddhaghosa as
having come to Sri Lanka from India, and settled in Anuradhapura.[8
] Besides this information, they provide only
short lists of teachers, supporters, and associates of Buddhaghosa,
whose names are not generally to be found elsewhere for
comparison.[8
]

The Mahavamsa records that Buddhaghosa was
born into a Brahmin family
in the kingdom of Magadhi.[2]
He is said to have been born near Bodh Gaya, and to have been a master of the
Vedas, traveling through India
engaging in philosophical debates.[9
] Only upon encountering a Buddhist monk named
Revata was Buddhaghosa bested in debate, first being defeated in a
dispute over the meaning of a Vedic doctrine, and then being
confounded by the presentation of a teaching from the Abhidhamma.[9
] Impressed, Buddhaghosa became a Buddhist monk
and undertook the study of the Tipitaka and its commentaries. On finding a
text for which the commentary had been lost in India, Buddhaghosa
determined to travel to Sri Lanka to study a Sinhalese commentary
that was believed to have been preserved.[9
]

In Sri Lanka, Buddhaghosa began to study what was apparently a
very large volume of commentarial texts that had been assembled and
preserved by the monks of the Mahavihara.[10]
Buddhaghosa sought permission to synthesize the assembled
Sinhalese-language commentaries into a comprehensive single
commentary composed in the Pali
language.[11
] The elder monks sought to first test
Buddhaghosa's knowledge, by assigning him the task of elaborating
the doctrine regarding two verses of the suttas; Buddhaghosa replied by composing the Visuddhimagga.[12]
His abilities were further tested when deities intervened and hid
the text of his book, twice forcing him to recreate it from
scratch.[11
] When the three texts were found to completely
summarize all of the Tripitaka and match in every respect, the
monks acceded to his request and provided Buddhaghosa with the full
body of their commentaries.[11
]

Buddhaghosa went on to write commentaries on most of the other
major books of the Pali Canon,
with his works becoming the definitive Theravadin interpretation of the
scriptures.[2]
Having synthesized or translated the whole of the Sinhalese
commentary preserved at the Mahavihara, Buddhaghosa reportedly
returned to India, making a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya to pay his
respects to the bodhi tree.[11
]

The details of the Mahavamsa account cannot readily be verified;
while it is generally regarded by Western scholars as having been
embellished with legendary events (such as the hiding of
Buddhaghosa's text by the gods), in the absence of contradictory
evidence it is assumed to be generally accurate.[9
] While the Mahavamsa claims that Buddhaghosa was
born in northern India near Bodh Gaya, the epilogues to his
commentaries make reference to only one location in India as being
a place of at least temporary residence: Kanci in southern India.[6]
Some scholars thus conclude (among them Oskar von Hinüber and A.P.
Buddhadatta) that Buddhaghosa was actually born in southern India,
and was relocated in later biographies to give him closer ties to
the region of the Buddha.[6]

The Buddhaghosuppatti, a later biographical text, is
generally regarded by Western scholars as being legend rather than
history.[13] It
adds to the Mahavamsa tale certain details, such as the identity of
Buddhaghosa's parents and his village, as well as several dramatic
episodes, such as the conversion of Buddhaghosa's father and
Buddhaghosa's role in deciding a legal case.[14] It
also explains the eventual loss of the Sinhalese originals that
Buddhaghosa worked from in creating his Pali commentaries by
claiming that Buddhaghosa collected and burnt the original
manuscripts once his work was completed.[15]

Writings and
translations

Buddhaghosa was reputedly responsible for an extensive project
of synthesizing and translating a large body of Sinhala commentaries on the Pāli Canon. His
Visuddhimagga
(Pāli: Path of Purification) is a comprehensive manual of Theravada
Buddhism that is still read and studied today. The Mahavamsa
ascribes a great many books to Buddhaghosa's composition, some of
which are not believed to have been his work, but rather were
composed later and attributed to him.[16]

Below is a listing of the fourteen commentaries traditionally
ascribed to Buddhaghosa (Pāli: atthakatha) on the Pāli Tipitaka:[17]

While traditional accounts list Buddhaghosa as the author of all
of these works, the current consensus among scholars accepts only
the Visuddhimagga and the commentaries on the first four nikayas as
Buddhaghosa's work.[18]

Influence
and Legacy

In the 12th century, the Sri Lankan monk Sariputta became the leading scholar of the
Theravada following the reunification of the Sri Lankan monastic
community by King Parakramabahu I.[19]
Sariputta incorporated many of the works of Buddhaghosa into his
own interpretations.[19]
In subsequent years, many monks from Theravada traditions in
Southeast Asia sought ordination or re-ordination in Sri Lanka
because of the reputation of the Sri Lankan Mahavihara lineage for
doctrinal purity and scholarship.[19]
The result was the spread of the teachings of the Mahavihara tradition- and
thus Buddhaghosa- throughout the Theravada world.[19]
Buddhaghosa's commentaries thereby became the standard method by
which the Theravada scriptures were understood, establishing
Buddhaghosa as the definitive interpreter of Theravada
doctrine.[12]

In later years, Buddhaghosa's fame and influence inspired
various accolades. His life story was recorded, in an expanded and
likely exaggerated form, in a Pali chronicle known as the
Buddhaghosuppatti, or "The Development of the Career of
Buddhaghosa".[12]
Despite the general belief that he was Indian by birth, he later
may have been claimed by the Mon
people of Burma as an attempt to assert primacy
over Sri Lanka in the development of Theravada tradition.[20] Other
scholars believe that the Mon records refer to another figure, but
whose name and personal history are much in the mold of the Indian
Buddhaghosa.[21]

Finally, Buddhaghosa's works likely played a significant role in
the revival and preservation of the Pali language as the scriptural language of the
Theravada, and as a lingua franca in the exchange of ideas,
texts, and scholars between Sri Lanka and the Theravada countries
of mainland Southeast Asia. The development of new analyses of
Theravada doctrine, both in Pali and Sinhalese, seems to have dried
up prior to Buddhaghosa's emergence in Sri Lanka.[22] In
India, new schools of Buddhist philosophy (such as the Mahayana) were emerging, many
of them making use of classical Sanskrit both as a scriptural language and as
a language of philosophical discourse.[23] The
monks of the Mahavihara may have attempted to counter the growth of
such schools by re-emphasizing the study and composition in Pali,
along with the study of previously disused secondary sources that
may have vanished in India, as evidenced by the Mahavamsa.[24] Early
indications of this resurgence in the use of Pali as a literary
language may be visible in the composition of the Dipavamsa and the
Vimuttimagga, both dating to shortly before Buddhaghosa's arrival
in Sri Lanka.[25] The
addition of Buddhaghosa's works- which combined the pedigree of the
oldest Sinhalese commentaries with the use of Pali, a language
shared by all of the Theravada learning centers of the time-
provided a significant boost to the revitalization of the Pali
language and the Theravada intellectual tradition, possibly aiding
the Theravada school in surviving the challenge to its position
posed by emerging Buddhist schools of mainland India.[26]

Critics

Australian Buddhist monastic Shravasti Dhammika writes: "Even
Buddhaghosa did not really believe that Theravada practice could
lead to Nirvana. His Visuddhimagga is supposed to be a
detailed step by step guide to enlightenment. And yet in the
postscript he says he hopes that the merit he has earned by writing
the Vishuddhimagga will allow him to be reborn in heaven,
abide there until Metteyya (Maitreya) appears, hear his teaching and then
attain enlightenment." [27]
Dhammika believes there is a contradiction in Buddhaghosa's
position; Buddhaghosa has compiled what is intended to be a
complete and authoritative guide to gaining enlightenment through
the practice of the teachings of the Pali Canon, but seems to
desire for himself the option of being taught in person by a Buddha
rather than claiming he will be enlightened by the practices set
forth in the Visuddhimagga. Shravasti Dhammika interprets this as
indicating that Buddhaghosa does not believe that following the
practice set forth in the Visuddhimagga will really lead him to
Nirvana. Devotion to Maitreya was common in South Asia from early
in the Buddhist era, and is believed to have been particularly
popular during Buddhaghosa's era.[28][29]

Notes

^
(v. Hinüber 1996,
p. 103) is more specific, estimating dates for Buddhaghosa of
370–450 CE based on the Mahavamsa and other sources. Following the
Mahavamsa, (Bhikkhu
Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxvi) places Buddhaghosa's arrival as
coming during the reign of King Mahanama, between 412 and 434
CE.

Neither Pj [Paramattha-jotika] I nor Pj II can be
dated, not even in relation to each other, except that both
presuppose Buddhaghosa. In spite of the 'Buddhaghosa colophon'
added to both commentaries ... no immediate relation to Buddhaghosa
can be recognized.... Both Ja [Jataka-atthavannana] and Dhp-a
[Dhammapada-atthakatha] are traditionally ascribed to Buddhaghosa,
an assumption which has been rightly questioned by modern
research....